WOMEN’S MONTH: In South Africa, August is Women’s Month. We look at four brilliant women in leadership positions at four JSE-listed companies. There is a constant call for companies to appoint more women in leadership positions. We fully support this call. We look at four women who are making a valuable contribution to their companies These women are not “quota players” – they are all well qualified and are excellent leaders of their companies.

DR. LEILA FOURIE (51): The mountaineer and rock climber. We start with the CEO of the JSE, Leila Fourie. Leila’s business career spans more than 25 years working in consulting, investment banking, retail banking & capital markets in South Africa and Australia. She studied at Wits University. She received a doctorate from the University of Johannesburg. Before moving to Australia, she served on the board of the JSE as an executive director. In Australia she served as executive responsible for consumer finance at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Australia’s biggest bank. She returned to South Africa to join the JSE again, this time as CEO of the biggest stock exchange in Africa and the 17th biggest in the world. She is an experienced, and fearless, mountaineer and rock climber.

NATASCHA VILJOEN (51): The gold miner’s daughter. Her father worked as a shift manager at a mine in Klerksdorp, and she often went with him to work. Today she is the CEO of Anglo-American Platinum, the biggest platinum mine in the world. She matriculated from Hoërskool Klerksdorp in 1987. Natascha is a metallurgical engineer. She holds a B Eng degree from the North-West University, and an Executive MBA (cum laude) from the University of Cape Town. In 2019, Natascha was recognised by the international organization, “Mines & Money”, with the “Unsung Hero” award, for her work on Coarse Particle Recovery technology.

MPUMI MADISA (41): The jogger. In 2019 Mpumi became the CEO designate of Bidvest. When management broke the news to her, she nearly fell off her chair. She was the first black female to be appointed CEO of a JSE top 40 company. She became the first woman to be appointed as CEO of Bidvest. She grew up in Sebokeng to the south of Johannesburg. After school at the Mondeor High School, she attended Wits University. She studied courses in mathematics, statistics and economics and obtained a M Comm degree in Finance and Investments. Her first job was at Hollard Insurance. She left after 18 months to join Prestige, a Bidvest subsidiary. After three years she left, but luckily, she later returned to Prestige. A few months later she was promoted to work for Bidvest at group level and was appointed to the Bidvest board. She fully took over the CEO role from then CEO Lindsay Ralphs in July 2020. To unwind and boost her metabolism, she goes for a six-kilometer jog every morning.

MAGDA WIERZYCKA (52): The disrupter from Poland. Magda is the co-founder of Sygnia. Today she is chairperson of Sygnia. She is known as a disrupter. She is also well-known, and feared, for her anti-corruption activism. She is a billionaire, the richest woman in South Africa. She was born in Poland. Forbes listed her among “Africa’s 50 Most Powerful Women”. She grew up in Poland where she shared a two-bedroom flat with her sister, brother, grandmother, and parents who were medical doctors. Her Jewish grandmother was a Holocaust survivor. With the economic collapse of Poland, she moved with her family to a Polish refugee camp in Austria where they lived for a year. Her parents were forced to dig ditches to earn a living. Her family moved to South Africa in 1983 when she was thirteen years old. The family settled in Pretoria, where she attended Pretoria High school for girls. She had to learn English and Afrikaans swiftly. She then attended the University of Cape Town where she graduated with a postgraduate diploma in actuarial science. She first joined Southern Life. She then joined Coronation in Cape Town, playing a pivotal role in building it to one of the biggest asset management firms in South Africa. Later she landed at Cadiz Asset Management. She then led a management acquisition of a part of the company that became Sygnia Asset Management, of which she became the CEO. In 2015 she listed Sygnia on the JSE. She serves on the Advisory Board of Harvard’s Centre for Africa Studies.

SUMMARY: Unfortunately, space does not allow us to discuss more female leaders. South Africa is blessed with several highly qualified and capable female leaders. At the JSE (the listed company) Leila Fourie is the CEO. But the chairperson and the CFO are also two ladies. Unlike the ladies in our cabinet, who are basically “quota players”, our ladies in the private sector can stand their ground anywhere in the world. Margaret Thatcher once said: “A lady is often the best man for the job”, and “If you want something said, ask a man; if you want something done, ask a woman.” In 1983 Ronald Reagan remarked: “Margaret Thatcher is the best man in England”.